This week's City Paper cover story has Abby White taking a good look at the the growth of Yazoo Brewing in the past 10 years under the tutelage of Linus and Lina Hall. A big factor in that success has been the support of local consumers, sellers and distributors and Hall isn't prepared to part ways with those constituents as the giants of the beer industry push into the craft brewing market.

“There’s a lot of lines getting blurred and it’s getting harder to tell who is who in the industry, who owns what percent of what and who is being distributed through what channel. A lot of people say, ‘As long as the beer tastes good, I don’t care,’ but I’m biased. I do care, and I think a lot of people do, and they want to feel like they’re supporting another independent local company versus a big multinational conglomerate.”

In the short term, Hall has taken the lead in coordinating small Tennessee brewers' efforts to tweak the taxation of beer in the state. A fundraiser to raise money for lobbyists is scheduled for this Friday.